I. Room Thirteen

Rover came to Ivory's rescue and quickly took her inside.

"Rover, what's room thirteen?"

"You don't want to know," he said sternly and dragged her along. "Come on, and after this night, don't ask about it ever again. Room thirteen is not a room that you want to go too."

"I understand," Ivory said.

Ivory felt that something would happen.

The two reached the staircase, but Blue popped up out of nowhere and grabbed Ivory's arm. "Ivory," he smirked, "you'll be watching what goes on in-room thirteen."

Ivory got nervous, and Rover shouted at the boss. "Are you fucking crazy, Blue? You know what happens in that room is inhuman!"

"Last time I checked, this is my gang, and I'll run it, however, the fuck I want to run it." Blue stared down at the shorter girl, placing a hand on her hand.

His hand felt unusually strong.

Rover grabbed her other arm. "Blue, don't—!"

"Go upstairs! We have work to do!" Rover stared fearfully at him. "Go, get out of here! This is my base and my gang, and don't you tell me for a second how to run it." Blue shouted. "Unless you want to join our new prisoner," he whispered the last part.

Rover's eyes widened, and he backed up, sending Ivory an apologetic look and quickly ran off, succumbing to the darkness.

Ivory tried to run away, but Blue held onto her armpits and led her down a familiar hallway. The air got cold, and everything went dark as he carried her through the long hall. It was so quiet, the echoes of footsteps made Ivory lose track of whose echoes were whose.

Dark and sinister sounds were heard, and she entered a room with a metal table and straps holding down the familiar screaming and thrashing man. The man was cursing like a sailor. He made a few empty threats, but no one seemed fazed by what he was saying.

Ivory cringed, and she thought that the man was gross looking.

"What an ugly thing, huh, Ivory?" Red laughed. "Yes, it's always the ugly ones, isn't it?"

Ivory nodded, not sure what to say.

Weird and sharp objects and unusually large needles were lying on a tray.

Ivory knew right away that whatever would happen wasn't anything an average human would do. The shelf held large jars, some were empty while some were held what looked like body parts; some held strange liquids.

Ivory didn't question what the liquid was.

"Do you like my shelf, little one?" Blue asked.

"Yes, you have interesting things."

"Wait until you find out what the liquids are," Red's eyebrows went up and down.

The lights were dim, making it dark and scary.

Ivory tried to leave, but Blue held her in front of him, hands tightly gripped her arms.

"Don't leave, we want to show you how severe punishments work," Blue said. "All of my members have seen what goes on in here. Now, you must," Blue leaned as Ivory moved her face away.

Blue laughed. "Are you scared?" Ivory nodded. "You should be."

The man was screaming and begging for them to let him go, but Red and Blue ignored him.

A man around six feet or taller with enormous muscles walked in, wearing a black mask and an all-black outfit. He had a tight muscle t-shirt on with a black belt around his dark pants.

Ivory felt goosebumps appear on her arms; she got cold and began to feel sick. She turned her head to the side after seeing the man in the mask clean the objects.

"Oh, she's nervous," Blue said, "she has goosebumps."

"Yeah, she's shivering!"

Red closed the door behind them and guarded it with crossed arms, indicating that no one was leaving until the man that beat Birdie learned his lesson.

Blue looked down at Ivory and grabbed her small face with his more substantial hand, and forced her to look at the man. "Come on, Ivory — if you're going to show us your worth, you need to see the worst-case scenarios."

"I thought I would be a hacker," she commented as his hand gripped her face, making it hard for her to complete the sentence.

He smirked, "Don't be scared, dear. Nothing bad will happen to you — if what you see in this room scares you enough to never defy me."

The punishment began. The torturer injected strange substances into the customer's arms and began cutting him all over. The masked man even took a chainsaw and sawed off one of the man's arms—and Ivory could hear the bones crunch as they were cut through by the chainsaw, and she shivered. His blood squirted all over the room, some of it stained her face. Ivory made a face of disgust as the blood's scent traumatized her nostrils. She looked up to see some on Blue's face. He looked down at her, and she quickly turned away to see Red smoking quietly, the blood a centimeter away from him.

The restrained man screamed, cried, and begged for mercy, but the room was so silent and cold that a pin could drop.

More blood spilled onto the floor and stuck to the floor, making Ivory stare and see her own reflection within the man's blood—seeing Viper on that table. She swore to herself that she'd never find herself tortured that way and would make sure that Viper was obedient.

Ivory peeked at the man's estate; one of his legs was missing. Ivory was soon able to block out his screams, they became music to her. The masked man picked up a scallop and took out one of the man's eyes and placed it into a jar, and it made Ivory cringe.

Ivory wasn't frightened for some strange reason. Perhaps her shock already triggered her.

The man kept crying, but no one was going to help him.

The masked man stopped to stare at Ivory, who returned the stare. Blue shifted, and Ivory forgot the firm grip the leader had on her. Blue placed a hand on her shoulder, "I think Ivory should try one of those tools," he began.

Red grinned evilly, arms still crossed. "I'm with you on that one, boss," Red turned to Ivory and nodded his head over to the table's direction. "Go on, Little Lady, try it—don't be shy," he said in a mimicking tone. He then lit another cigarette, smirking at her in the process.

Ivory slowly walked over to the table, staring at all of the shiny and metal tools, some were recognizable while others she never knew existed. Blue got closer and crossed his arms as the masked man stepped away and let the two negotiate on what would happen.

"Well, which one would you like to try out?"

"I don't know—I've never seen most of these tools before," she countered in a whisper.

She observed the twists and curves and the sharpness of all the objects. Her stomach began to hurt; it was hard to breathe.

Blue picked up a knife, "Start with this," he gently placed it into her smaller hand, "cut his stomach."

Blue roughly lifted up the man's shirt, revealing a fat and hairy stomach—which distracted her from the bruises and cuts all around his body, his missing limbs, and his missing eye.

Ivory knew that something terrible may happen to her if she didn't go along with Blue's orders, so she cut the man, who cried out again, blood quickly pouring out of the open wound.

Ivory's eyes widened, she was shocked that she could do such a thing, but the young woman didn't feel bad — if she were on that table and the man had to hurt her, he would. Plus, he attacked Birdie, so he deserved his punishment.

She felt evil energy radiating off Blue. Something about him made her believe that he was invincible.

Blue and Red were satisfied.

Blue told the masked man to finish and left with Ivory while Red stayed. The man's screams and shouts and cries could be heard, and Ivory's chest hurt. She walked alongside Blue and was silent, not knowing what to say.

"I hope you know how things are around here, Ivory dear," Blue said in a high-pitched voice, mocking her.

Ivory looked up at him. "Yeah, I understand."

He smirked. "Good, perhaps tell your little friend that," he sneered and left her alone in the quiet hallway.

She felt her blood boil at the thought of her friend being in that room. Ivory now knew what she was involved with and could happen if someone defied the Blue Dragons in any way.

Ivory didn't like the punishment one bit, so she decided that avoiding Blue unless she needed to see him and being obedient would be the best way to avoid punishment.

The gang leader scared her, never ever had she felt so scared.